Message from our CEO, Nick Johnson

I’m excited to be sharing some big news with you, as well as a wider update of everything that we’ve been working on behind the scenes in our business in the last 6-12 months…

Firstly, and what I believe is the biggest visual change, is that as of February 1st, 2022 we’ll be changing our name from Software2 to AppsAnywhere!

One of our key company values is to be completely transparent, whether it’s with our colleagues or our customers. So, I’d love to share why we’ve decided to change our name, why we’re thrilled about it, and why you should be too! I’m also pleased to be sharing a quick update on other things that have been happening here at Software2, I mean, AppsAnywhere…

Our journey

When we started Software2, our vision was to take our knowledge and create the best possible experience for students, by providing the most incredible and valuable app delivery solution for Higher Ed. With this philosophy at the centre of our development, we’ve been able to improve both our product and delivery ability year on year. We see our customers as partners; so their valued feedback is super important for us to continue to develop the best product possible. In fact, it’s thanks to our customers’ suggestions that AppsAnywhere exists in the first place, after our official launch event in 2016!

Now, more than 10 years into our journey, and over 5 years since AppsAnywhere was born, we’ve taken the time to figure out where we want to go and most interestingly, how we might get there!

The main direction of this new strategy is all about driving company growth through two key concepts, to become more product-led and customer-centric.

But what does that actually mean?

Pivoting to being 'product-led’

To start with, we want to reinvest more heavily into AppsAnywhere’s product development, so we can release more frequently and build in even more feature requests. We’ve already made a start on this by re-evaluating all our internal dev processes and increasing the size of our product teams, with plans to continue this growth.

In addition to this we have also collaborated with our customers and completely changed the way in which we evaluate ‘what’ we’re going to develop (i.e. our roadmap!). This is achieved through the appointment of Spencer Vale as Product Manager, who has created our all-new Four Pillars concept and the Voice of the Customer board, both of which are our guiding principles around all-things AppsAnywhere development. 

Alongside Spencer, we’re excited to announce the appointment of our new Development Manager, James McNab, who’s tasked with the exciting challenge of managing the ‘how’ of product development, including how we release more frequently, and how we ensure that product releases are of the highest quality every time.

As well as delivering an even better product, we also want to provide a better platform so that our customers can get more access to better resources. We’re doing this by investing in things like AppsAnywhere Academy, improving our online customer communities and knowledgebases, and doubling the size of our Customer Success teams. Our goal is to make it easier, for new and existing customers alike, to consume our solution and get even greater value from it. We’re also investing in a brand-new customer-focused marketing position who will make sure we deliver on these customer-facing enhancements and improvements to our customer journey.

Becoming more ‘customer-centric’

We’re endeavoring as a business to build customer feedback into the heart of what we do, using it as a starting point for all strategy and product decisions. We’re doing this by building a ‘customer-centric’ culture internally and making sure that everyone at AppsAnywhere knows our customer journey and the role they play in making customers successful.

Ultimately, we want to create a solution that makes a real difference to higher-ed institutions and give our customers all the tools they need to improve student outcomes. Our vision is for AppsAnywhere to be the central platform for students to access all their university’s apps in a single click, anywhere and anytime.

Other behind-the-scenes changes…

Thanks to our continued growth as a business over the last decade, it’s important that we continue to recruit experienced people who are experts in their field. So, in a general drive towards building more structure across our teams, we’re thrilled to bring into the business a new layer of senior management, responsible for driving improvements and delivering strategy in departments across the company. Outside of what I’ve already discussed within Development, there are also some key appointments and changes, which include Ismail Lambat as our new Head of Support, Tony Baez as Director of Implementations, and a well-deserved promotion for Marcus Paul to Director of Service Delivery.

We’re also excited to share the appointment of Peter Cooke as AppsAnywhere COO. Peter originally joined Software2 in 2016 to transform the business' global marketing activities and build a brand befitting our awesome solution, our global Higher Ed reach, and our widespread community of evangelistic customers. As Chief Operating Officer, Peter now leads on defining and embedding our long-term strategic plan across all parts of the business, looking at ways to drive improvements in product development, service delivery, and sales and marketing. Peter keeps a close eye on the needs and demands of the global Higher Ed markets and future trends and takes a particular interest in our customer journey.

Exciting is a word that we’ve thrown around a lot here recently, but this really is a ground-breaking time for us and for our customers, too. Over the last 5 years, I’ve seen that Software2 is successful as a business when our customers are successful. It’s been my pleasure to help define and now implement AppsAnywhere’s new long-term strategy, which is all centered around exactly that: our customers, and how we invest in the product to make them more successful! -Peter Cooke, COO

“As a business, we’re clearer than ever on where we want to go with a strong vision for our product, and we’ve got an exceedingly capable team of stars who’ll help us get there. The world of Higher Ed has been irreversibly changed in recent times, and now more than ever AppsAnywhere is a mission-critical tool for universities in their quest to provide the best possible student experience. Whether it’s IT equity, digital backpacks, or technology toolkits, we want to equip today’s students with the access they need to be successful, all with a single click. That’s our mission!” says Peter Cooke, newly appointed COO of AppsAnywhere.

Although we’re clear in our new strategy, we can’t do this on our own. As we continue to invest in development and add valuable new Higher Ed-specific features to our product, we need your feedback! We’re where we are today thanks to our customers’ suggestions, and it’s really important to our new plan that we keep doing that.

Peter Cooke, COO

Peter will be working closely with our new Senior Management Team and with product development, to ensure that all departments are hitting key objectives and to make sure we continue to meet the needs of Higher Ed, all while improving service delivery to make the customer journey better and find ways for customers to get even more value from AppsAnywhere.

What’s next for the product?

We’re hoping to host in-person User Days again very soon (along with digital alternatives), where we plan to share all this news and more details about the product vision and roadmap. In the meantime, I’m pleased to share a sneak peek of what’s coming up next…

To accompany the name change we’ll be releasing AppsAnywhere v3 later this year. AppsAnywhere v3 will be a step-change in terms of user experience for both the student portal and the admin interface, incorporating over 20 of our most requested improvements. It’ll also have some exciting new features for the management of delivery methods.

“The v3 springboard is the future of AppsAnywhere, and represents a significant landmark in how we’re moving forward as a product-focussed, customer-centric company”

Spencer Vale, Product Owner

Thanks to the new architecture of the product in v3 we’ll be able to launch new features and improvements more frequently, with our all-new product pillars at the forefront of everything we do. We’ll focus on Higher Education including integrations with many of the most used higher-ed tools. You can expect to see improved integrations for existing delivery methods and some exciting new ones. User experience will be at the forefront of everything we do. We’re going to go further with our Analytics capability to give you the data you need to make great decisions for your university. We’re looking forward to sharing more details on our roadmap with you all very soon.

 

I want to thank you all for your supporting AppsAnywhere and our stellar team. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me or your contact here at AppsAnywhere.

Many thanks,

Nick Johnson